Moonshine Turns Nine


16th September 2014: Moonshine Ninth Anniversary Malaysia Day Special, at Laundry Bar, The Curve! Here’s the persistent, consistent gig organizer, Reza Salleh, who has been doing this for 9 years now, from its humble beginnings as an acoustic show at No Black Tie, to many electric years in Laundry Bar (including an open mic session after, in the early iterations), and a short stint at The Bee, Publika, and returning to Laundry Bar.

Just for listmania, here are the first 10 Moonshine gigs ever:

1) 26th November 2005, No Black Tie
2) 15th December 2005, No Black Tie
3) 5th January 2006, No Black Tie
4) 2nd February 2006, No Black Tie (postponed due to complications with DBKL.)
5) 11th May 2006, Laundry Bar (same lineup as the postponed Moonshine #4, just relocated.)
6) 1st June 2006, Laundry Bar
7) 13th July 2006, Laundry Bar
8) 10th August 2006, Laundry Bar
9) 14th September 2006, Laundry Bar
10) 12th October 2006, Laundry Bar


The first leg of this Malaysia Day Special was outdoors, and Hameer Zawawi was on. Everyone was to do covers of Malaysian bands. Quite surprised he didn’t do Tempered Mental – Automata, in fact!


Zalila Lee on djembe.


Cassandra Mary, one of the grungier!


Saturday Afternoon.


Seriously digging Melissa’s tattoo!


They also did a cover of Estranged – Itu Kamu, as well as Disagree – Crumbs, cutting into Malaysian Artistes For Unity – Here In My Home.


I brought the Sony 16mm F2.8 E-mount pancake lens, modified for full-frame, for my Sony Alpha 7S, resulting in this funky image.


Next up: The acoustic goodness of Crinkle Cut.


Such heartbreaker eyes!


Ashley interestingly sports a cajon that is different than the run-of-the-mill standard-issue one. Ask her about it!


If you haven’t noticed, there’s a color theme going on…


Malaysia Day, and they were dressed in colors of the Malayan (and then) Malaysian flag!


This may be a breathing exercise. Probably helps with singing.


The second leg of the show was indoors, back in the usual stage…


…with the multi-part harmony of The Vochale Project!


I then bumped into Land Slyde of Poetic Ammo, who had with him, Dave Childs, who was their lead guitarist!


The other Poetic Ammo member I bump into all the time, C. Loco, was also there!


Amir Jahari.


Kyoto Protocol!


They did a cover of Butterfingers – The Chemistry (Between Us) and admitted to just reusing their Malaysian covers from Versus, a battle-of-the-bands contest. Still, solid stuff!


Frenchman singing in Malay.


Elizabeth Tan!


Her trusty guitarist John.


She’d been doing Malaysian covers for quite some time – so it was a natural fit for the theme for this Moonshine.


Here, she covered Darren Ashley – On My Toes! I was floored to hear anybody cover Darren Ashley’s older stuff, before he became the electronica cat he is today. She also did Estrella – Stay.


Meanwhile, outside… note the photobomber in the middle.


Jin Hackman!


This rap genius is at work!


His rockin’ band.


A Kevin Theng I didn’t recognize at first, looking a bit Keanu Reeves-ish here.


The decks.


He brought on Nadhira…


…as well as C. Loco…


To bring so many Malaysian hip hop classics!


They burst out Poetic Ammo – Who Be The Playa and Poetic Ammo – Everything Changes. This was in fact, my first time seeing a Poetic Ammo song getting covered, and my first time seeing a Poetic Ammo member performing a Poetic Ammo song.


There was also Too Phat, Teh Tarik Crew and Urban XChange! Almost forgot about Urban XChange.


I don’t wander much into the local hip-hop scene, sadly.


The ethereal Ali Aiman. He covered Najwa…


…who performed right after. Probably the only cover of another artiste also playing the same evening.


Najwa did a cover of Mia Palencia – Sayang


…who Fook also plays for.


So there’s guitar, bass, and keyboard. I don’t think I’ve seen him play drums.


That’s what the amazing John Ashley Thomas is for.


Nish. Wait, more keyboards? Yeah, Najwa is going darker (and she plays awesome solo piano and sings herself!)


The big poster, with autographs.


That’s my autograph!

The full set of pictures is here, on Moonshine Productions’ photo album.

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